


you had me at merlot

by piperreynas



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Mutual Pining, Vineyard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 23:33:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12000246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/piperreynas/pseuds/piperreynas
Summary: reyna visits a vineyard on vacation and gets roped into bringing zia rashid with her. she doesn't really mind.





	you had me at merlot

**Author's Note:**

> written for an ask prompt on tumblr in celebration of a hundred followers;

reyna had been skeptical when piper suggested a vineyard as a vacation spot, but the further into this week she gets the more tempting spending a week surrounded by a near-limitless supply of booze is beginning to sound.

she’s needed a long drink since todd from HR so much as opened his mouth and watching him argue with susan over something as stupid as  _post-it notes_ is doing strange things to her brain. 

zia rashid suddenly sidling up to her doesn’t make things any better. “hey! reyna right?” she says, smiling diplomatically, because they’ll never be anything but colleagues and she really needs to get that through her head if she wants to survive the next quarter. reyna clutches the handle of her coffee cup a little tighter.

reyna tries for a smile, but if the way zia’s drops a little is anything to go by, it probably came out as a grimace. reyna kicks herself mentally. “yeah that’s me,” she says. “if you need help with the testing it’ll have to wait because i’m about to go on vacation-”

“oh no, i’m good on that front, i just wanted to talk to you about that vacation,” zia says. “i was wondering if i could maybe come with you?”

reyna blinks once, twice, three times, and she should really stop before she starts to look demented. she means to say something nice, like, “is something wrong?” or maybe even something flirty (but only a little because they’re  _just colleagues_ ) and what comes out instead is, “um.”

“i don’t mean to insert myself into your free time,” zia adds, “it’s just there’s a couple’s discount at that vineyard and i  _really_ need a vacation.” reyna nods; she’s fairly certain she’s having an out-of-body experience. “so what do you say?” she asks, eyes bright, and how can reyna say no?

“um,” reyna repeats. “sure?”

zia beams and reyna tightens her grip on her mug for the third time that day; she thinks she hears it cracking.

.

.

.

not only is zia ridiculously attractive and almost unfairly intelligent, she’s also awesome to be around. reyna is really fucking gay and also very screwed. “this is one my favorites,” zia is saying as a rolling stones song starts playing, quickly tucking a few stray locks of hair behind her ears.

“yeah?”

zia hums. “my ex introduced the band to me a couple years ago, and now i’m addicted.”

reyna purses her lips. “to  _mick jagger_.”

zia gives her a strange look. “are you making fun of me?’ she asks, surprised.

reyna’s smiling so wide now her face is starting to hurt. “depends.  _are_  you addicted to mick jagger?”

zia makes a face. “i wouldn’t word it like that, but-”

“oh my god,” reyna says, laughing, and two seconds later they’re fighting like children, road safety be damned, until something occurs to her. “was your ex a dude, or…?” she wishes she could take the words back as soon as they come out of her mouth.

zia goes stiff. “he was a guy,” she says carefully, glancing at reyna every now and then out of the corner of her eye, “but if a girl asked me out i wouldn’t say no.”

reyna opens her mouth and then closes it. “same,” she says a moment later. zia relaxes into the seat, and reyna smiles as her stomach does a weird swooping thing that she chooses to ignore. maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but she thinks zia smiles too.

.

.

.

it all goes south when they actually get to the vineyard. reyna rolls their suitcases into the lobby while zia checks them in, and then zia mentions the discount and the clerk  _laughs_. “ _you’re_  a couple?”

reyna straightens indignantly. “yeah,” she says. “you got a problem?”

“you two look like you just met each other,” the clerk responds, narrowing his eyes.

reyna narrows her eyes. “you think so?” she says, voice hard. zia’s glaring at the clerk with fire in her eyes.

the clerk swallows nervously. “i mean…yeah?”

“huh,” reyna says, tilting her head. then, in what is probably the most severe lapse of judgement she’s ever had, she strides towards zia and kisses the living daylights out of her. when she pulls away, her head is spinning and she knows she’s never going to be able to get over zia, but proving this dickhead wrong is worth it. (right?)

“still don’t believe us?” zia asks, her voice a little rougher than usual.

the clerk, now flushed tomato-red, punches a few buttons on his computer and says, “ enjoy your stay,” before nearly throwing their keys at them. 

.

.

.

everything becomes ten times as awkward once they’re in the room. “look, I’m sorry about-” reyna starts. 

zia starts shaking her head the moment reyna opens her mouth. “don’t worry about that. you did what you had to do,” she says, her lips twisting into a smile that makes reyna’s stomach churn.

“right,” reyna says. she sleeps on the couch as atonement ( ~~punishment~~ ) and wakes up with a crick in her neck. she doesn’t tell zia.

.

.

.

they go out into the vineyards the next day. zia pretends like nothing has happened, so reyna follows her lead, curses the way her gaze always,  _always_ , falls back to zia as the tour guide drones on and on about napa valley grapes.

the day after that, they take a tour of the processing plants. she finds herself staring at the back of zia’s head instead of the wood barrels far too often.

.

.

.

the last day, the vineyard staff gives them a few complimentary bottles of wine. zia grins when she finds it outside the door. “the only logical course of action is to get blackout drunk,” she proclaims, which in reyna’s eyes, is a very logical statement.

half way through the first bottle, reyna decides that they’re playing truth or dare the truths and dares start off fairly normal at first, but eventually they get to questions like, “who was your first crush?”

reyna swallows. “i can’t remember,” she lies. zia can tell, she knows; reyna’s a terrible liar when she’s drunk, but she doesn’t say anything, just keeps looking at her with those dark eyes. reyna clears her throat. “your turn. truth or dare?”

“truth.”

“your first crush?”

“carter kane,” zia says. the corners of her lips curl up into a half-smile. “he was the ex i was talking about.” 

reyna frowns. “how-”

“he’s gay,” zia says, by way of explanation.

reyna snorts into her glass. “of course.“

zia hums noncommitally. “truth or dare?”

something about the way zia’s looking at her right now makes her feel warm; too warm almost. or maybe it’s just the wine. “dare,” reyna says.

zia grins devilishly. “i dare you to throw this bottle out the window,” she says, raising said bottle up as far as she can with shaky limbs.

“you’re not even half way done with that bottle,” reyna protests, “and by the time you are, we’ll have forgotten about all of this. give me something else.”

zia bites her lip and reyna looks away quickly, her cheeks flushing. "kiss me?“

reyna chokes on her wine. “are you sure?”

zia smirks and scoots closer, her hair falling in front of her eyes, and  _god_ there’s no way reyna’s getting through this night without having at least one stroke. "i wouldn't have asked if i wasn't," she says, and who is reyna to protest?

.

.

.

she wakes up the next morning feeling like she’s been run over by an eighteen wheeler, but she’s  _warm_ ; her is face pressed into the side of zia’s neck, zia’s arm thrown over her waist and she feels more content than she ever has been in her life, so she thinks it was worth it in the end.


End file.
